New customer won't pay until you're set up as a supplier? How to stop onboarding delaying your first invoice

You won the contract. The work starts Monday. The customer is big, solid and pays on 30-day terms.

Then their procurement team emails a link to the supplier portal: company details, ABN, bank account, insurance certificates, a privacy declaration, a modern slavery questionnaire. Until it’s all approved, the invoice can’t go in.

Your 30 days haven’t started yet, and your pay runs started on Monday.

This guide covers the date most owners miss with a big new customer: the day you become an approved supplier. It covers what onboarding asks for, where it stalls, how to work out when the first payment will really land, and what to do about the gap.

Why does supplier set-up decide when you get paid?

Large organisations don’t pay people. Their accounts payable systems pay approved vendors, against approved purchase orders, into verified bank accounts. Until all three are in place, nobody can release the money, even when the work is finished and everyone is happy with it.

So with a new customer, the real payment date depends on a chain:

1. You’re set up as a supplier (vendor record created and approved).
2. A purchase order is raised for your work.
3. You invoice against that PO, to the right entity and the right inbox.
4. The invoice is approved, usually by whoever ordered the work.
5. The payment run picks it up on the customer’s next scheduled pay day.
6. Funds clear into your account.

The contract’s “30 days” usually describes only part of that chain. Many large customers count their terms from receipt of a valid invoice, which means one that matches an approved PO from an approved supplier. An invoice sent before step 1 is finished often sits in a queue, or comes back.

What does onboarding usually ask for?

It varies by customer, but most supplier forms ask for some version of this list. Gather it once and keep it in a folder:

Item	Why they want it
Legal entity name, ABN and ACN	To match you on the ABN register and set up the vendor record
GST registration status	To process tax invoices correctly
Bank details on letterhead or a bank-issued confirmation	To verify the account before the first payment
A named contact and direct phone number	For the bank-detail callback
Public liability and other insurance certificates	Risk and contract requirements
Workers compensation certificate	Common for trades and on-site work
Signed supplier terms or a code of conduct	Procurement policy
Safety, quality or modern slavery questionnaires	Larger customers’ compliance programs
Remittance email address	So you know what each payment covers

Two of these carry real weight, because the law and the fraud risk sit behind them.

Your ABN. The ATO says a business paying a supplier who doesn’t quote an ABN generally has to withhold 47% of the payment and send it to the ATO, with limited exceptions such as supplies of $75 or less (excluding GST). No accounts team wants to do that, so the ABN check comes first. Make sure the entity on your form, your invoice and the ABN register all match exactly.

Your bank details. Payment redirection scams are why many customers won’t pay until someone has rung you. Scamwatch warns businesses about fake invoices carrying changed bank details, and the ASD’s small business cyber security guide recommends calling to confirm any request to change payment details. A careful customer will do the same to you. If the callback goes to a mobile that’s always on voicemail, your first payment waits.

Where does supplier set-up usually stall?

In our experience it’s rarely one big problem. It’s usually a few small ones:

• The form went to the wrong person. The site manager who hired you isn’t the one who approves vendors.
• One certificate is missing or expired. The whole record often stays “pending” until every field is complete.
• Entity mismatch. You trade under a business name, but the form, ABN and bank account belong to the company or trust. They need to line up.
• No purchase order. The work was agreed by phone and nobody raised a PO, so the invoice has nothing to match.
• The wrong customer entity. Big groups have several companies. The ATO’s tax invoice rules require sales of $1,000 or more to show the buyer’s identity or ABN, and accounts teams reject invoices addressed to the wrong one.
• The pay-run cycle. Many large businesses pay on set days. Miss one cut-off and the next run might be a week or a fortnight away.

Each of these can add days. Together they can push the first payment weeks past the date in the contract.

How do you work out when the first payment will really land?

Build the date from the chain, not from the contract. Ask the customer’s accounts payable team, ideally by email, these questions:

• How long does supplier approval usually take once the forms are complete?
• When will the purchase order be raised, and who raises it?
• Do your terms run from the invoice date, receipt of the invoice, or approval?
• Which days do your payment runs happen, and what’s the cut-off?
• Where should invoices go, and what must they show (PO number, entity name, site or job reference)?

Then add the answers up. A realistic first-payment date often looks like this:

Forms complete + approval time + PO raised + invoice issued + terms + next pay run + clearing time.

If the customer is a large business, also look it up on the Payment Times Reports Register. Our guide to big customer payment times explains how to read those reports. If you’re supplying a government agency, the government payment terms guide covers when its clock starts.

Put the date into the deadline planner next to your own fixed dates: pay runs, payday super, BAS and supplier accounts. The gap between them is what you need to cover.

What can you do to speed it up?

Most of this happens before the first invoice is due:

1. Ask for the onboarding pack the day you’re told you’ve won. Don’t wait for the start date.
2. Return everything in one go, complete and matching, rather than piece by piece.
3. Name one person and one phone number for the bank-detail callback, and tell that person to expect it.
4. Ask for the PO before you start work. “No PO, no start” is a fair policy with a new customer.
5. Issue the first invoice the day the work or delivery is complete, with the PO number, the correct customer entity and your ABN.
6. Confirm receipt and approval a few days later. Don’t wait for the due date to find out it was rejected.
7. Ask for a mobilisation or deposit payment on large jobs. business.gov.au’s payment terms guidance is a useful reference when you’re negotiating.

If the first payment is going to land after a pay run or an ATO date, you don’t have to wait to find out. Start a 60-second enquiry or ring 1300 752 188 once you know the gap.

What are the options while you wait?

Here’s what’s realistically possible, sorted by how much time you have:

Window	What’s possible	Watch for
Today	Same-day funding is possible for smaller unsecured amounts; $20k to $250k possible same day with property security	Have recent bank statements and the contract or PO ready
This week	Unsecured cash-flow funding, typically $5k to $500k, sized on turnover and bank statements	Size it to the gap, not the whole contract
This month	A line of credit you draw while each new customer onboards and repay as they pay	Suits businesses winning several new accounts
Large contracts	Property-secured funding up to $5m, possible within 24 to 48 hours	Useful when wages and materials run for months before the first payment

The usual costs in the gap are wages for the new contract and stock or materials bought before delivery. Size the funding to the weeks between your first outgoing and the realistic first-payment date, and make sure the customer’s payment is the thing that clears it.

What should you have ready?

Documents and decisions, not explanations:

• The signed contract, PO or letter of award, showing the customer, the value and the payment terms. See proving your deadline.
• The customer’s onboarding emails, showing where approval is up to
• Your realistic first-payment date and how you worked it out
• Your own fixed dates in the gap: pay runs, super, BAS, supplier accounts
• Recent business bank statements, with online access ready to share
• Who signs: every director, and anyone whose property is offered as security
• Your exit: which customer payment repays the funding, and when

A worked example

Illustrative example only. A commercial cleaning company wins a contract to service eight sites for a national property manager, starting 2 November. The contract says payment is 30 days from receipt of a valid invoice. Fortnightly wages for the extra staff come to about $38k per pay run.

The owner asks accounts payable the questions above. Supplier approval takes about ten business days once the forms are complete. POs are raised monthly in arrears. Payment runs happen on Thursdays. Working it through, the first invoice can’t be issued until early December, and the first payment is unlikely to land before early January, more than two months after the first shift.

That’s four or five pay runs, plus payday super on each, before any money comes in. The company returns the onboarding pack the same week, sets up a director’s mobile for the bank callback, and arranges a facility sized to roughly two months of new-contract wages. It draws on the facility for each pay run and repays it as the January and February payments arrive.

Won the customer? Make sure the gap doesn’t cost you the contract

Landing a big customer should be the good news. But wages, super and suppliers won’t wait while a procurement portal says “pending”. If the first payment lands after those dates, your best new account can end up as your biggest cash problem.

We work with owners in this spot all the time: they’ve won the work, done the work, and are waiting on someone else’s system. Enquiring takes about a minute, and there’s no credit check when you first enquire. We don’t hand your details to a pile of lenders, so your phone won’t start ringing with strangers. A real person looks at your contract, your realistic first-payment date and your fixed costs, then calls you to talk through what’s possible before your next deadline.

Please fill the form in accurately: who the customer is, the contract value, when you expect the first payment, and what’s due before then. Accurate figures mean we can match the right option the first time.

See if you qualify →

Prefer to talk it through? Ring 1300 752 188.